THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407310213
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ABE GOLDBLATT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
It's been a long wait but Phil Rizzuto, a Norfolk Tar from days gone by, is going into baseball's Hall of Fame today.
And the diminutive shortstop can count his blessings - with a very special thank-you to Ray White, his manager at Norfolk in 1938 - for his niche among the game's immortals.
When the 19-year-old Rizzuto reported to White at old Bain Field, his future was uncertain. The year before, White had managed Rizzuto at Bassett in the Class D Bi-State League. Little did little Phil know that his Norfolk experience would become the turning point of his career.
The New York Yankees thought Claude Corbitt was a better prospect to handle the shorstop position for their Norfolk farm club the Class B Piedmont League. They felt that Rizzuto, a 5-foot-6, 150-pound son of an Italian immigrant, was simply too small to be considered a Yankee of the future.
White, who had pitched for the Tars in 1934 and has made Norfolk his home, thought otherwise.
``The Yankees had paid Corbitt $4,000 to sign while at Duke University,'' White recalled. ``They gave Rizzuto $100. Corbitt was bigger and stronger than Phil, and he could really run.
``I had never seen Corbitt in my life. He had a bad arm. I had Phil a whole year at Bassett and he impressed me, batting .310.
``Well, I had Rizzuto playing short, Corbitt at second base and Gerry Priddy playing third. But (Yankees general manager) George Weiss wouldn't stand for it. He finally forced the issue: Rizzuto or Corbitt at short?''
Here's how Rizzuto, who credits White for his rise to the majors, related the incident to Peter Golembock, the author of ``Dynasty'':
``That spring, Norfolk had a kid by the name of Claude Corbitt, a local Southern boy (Sunbury, N.C.), and he and I were battling for shortstop. In the minors you were allowed to keep 16 men, and they had to get rid of an infielder. Ray kept me.
``They were up in arms - two New Yorkers (both Phil and White were from Queens in New York) coming down there and trying to take over. The booing. . . team. The papers, the radio were against us. I was worried about my job.
``As it turned out, I had one of my best years.''
Rizzuto batted .336 in helping the Tars win the Piedmont League pennant. He became one of the most popular players ever to perform in Norfolk.
Yankees manager Joe McCarthy wasn't convinced that Rizzuto would ever make it to Yankee Stadium.
``I remember when the Yankees came to town to play an exhibition with the Tars and I was talking with Joe McCarthy at the Monticello Hotel about Rizzuto,'' White said.
``McCarthy said Rizzuto would never play shortstop for him, saying, `I can't bring Singer's Midgets (a popular vaudeville troupe) to Yankee Stadium.'
``The Yankees knew how I felt. I told them that Phil could do more good things than most. He reacted distinctively. He was skilled at catching foul balls along the third base line, balls that most shortstops couldn't get. He was a master with the bunt, and one who could run down any grounder.''
While he was managing the Yankees, Casey Stengel rated Phil as one the best shortstops he had ever seen. But Casey wasn't always high on the little guy. In fact, he almost ended Rizzuto's career before it began.
Rizzuto attended a tryout camp conducted by the Brooklyn Dodgers at old Ebbets Field.
``Get dressed, sonny,'' Rizzuto was told by Stengel, who was then the Dodgers' manager. ``You're too small and frail. You can stay and see our game if you want to, but go home and don't come back.''
After he became a Yankees star, Rizzuto never let Stengel forget what he told him, and often related the incident to sports writers.
Rizzuto became a full-fledged shortstop with the Yankees in 1945.
During World War II (1943-45), he served in the Navy as a sailor stationed at the Norfolk Naval Training Station.
Gary Bodie, who coached the Training Station baseball team, which was loaded with major league stars, picked Rizzuto to be his shortstop and sent Pee Wee Reese to the Naval Air Station.
Rizzuto never forgot his ties to Norfolk.
During the baseball strike in June 1981, Rizzuto, a Yankees broadcaster, came to Met Park to broadcast Tides games because there was nothing going on in the majors. He reminisced about his associations in Norfolk.
``I loved Norfolk,'' he said. ``The people were friendly. I lived with an Italian family. What more could a guy ask? Why, Gus Meloni, God rest his soul, was my best man. And my barber. Free haircuts I got.''
Rizzuto played shortstop at Yankee Stadium for a decade and a half, becoming the Most Valuable Player in the American League in 1950 and the all-time Yankees shortstop.
Not bad for a little guy who was almost cut from the Norfolk baseball team in 1938.
Now, after being rejected by selectors for more than three decades, Rizzuto being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
``Well, it was inevitable that he'd finally get in,'' says White, the man who probably saved Rizzuto's career 56 years ago.
EPILOGUE: Pee Wee Reese, who was beaten out for the Naval Training Station shortstop position by Rizzuto, went on to become a star with the Dodgers. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984, 10 years before Rizzuto made it. . the Cincinnati Reds. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
In 1938, Rizzuto batted .336 for the Norfolk Tars en route to Yankee
Stadium.
by CNB